Though a self-driving car has yet to come to market, some of the core concepts like systems to alert you when you're moving out of your lane, or cruise control that responds to traffic, are already here. As part of our ongoing sponsored content series with Lincoln, we take a look at what could be the biggest advance in personal transportation since the car.

Commuters looking to get from point A to point B are generally given two options with unique advantages and disadvantages: Drive yourself to your destination, or rely on public transportation to get you there. Though driving yourself in your own car is private and more convenient, public transit is cheaper and better for the environment. However, a car that could drive itself would offer an intriguing third possibility, and it might be much closer than you think.]]>

Though a self-driving car has yet to come to market, some of the core concepts like systems to alert you when you’re moving out of your lane, or cruise control that responds to traffic, are already here. As part of our ongoing sponsored content series with Lincoln, we take a look at what could be the biggest advance in personal transportation since the car.

Commuters looking to get from point A to point B are generally given two options with unique advantages and disadvantages: Drive yourself to your destination, or rely on public transportation to get you there. Though driving yourself in your own car is private and more convenient, public transit is cheaper and better for the environment. However, a car that could drive itself would offer an intriguing third possibility, and it might be much closer than you think.

Simply put, a driverless car is a vehicle that doesn’t require human input to navigate. Attempts to remove the driver from the equation have been attempted as early as the late 1930s when engineers “drove” a car with electronics embedded in special roads, all the way to the present day with advanced GPS or light detecting and ranging (LIDAR) systems.

Most of the modern examples of driverless cars rely on varying sensor packages tied to computer systems to help the car figure out its location in space. Many use GPS, which as smartphone users know, gives you a pretty rough idea of where you are. Coupled with that are sytems like LIDAR, which can figure out how close the car is to another vehicle, the edge of the road, or anything else a car might encounter.

In one notable example from 1996, Project Argo produced a vehicle that used low-cost cameras to follow lane markers on existing highways. This approach is notable not only for its universality — most paved roads have lane markers — but also its low-cost approach.

A truly spectacular demonstration of driverless car technology took place between 2009 and 2010, when a pair of automated vehicles made their way from Italy to China. The journey, called the VisLab Intercontinental Autonomous Challenge, covered some 9,320 miles and is the longest automated vehicle trip to date.

In the 2000s, the development of driverless cars has been largely dominated by Sebastian Thrun and his work with Google. Thrun first began work on driverless cars while at Stanford University and participated in a DARPA automated car competition (are you surprised that DARPA is involved? You really shouldn’t be) and took the top prize. At Google, Thrun helped develop the fleet of driverless cars that in 2010 were reported to have logged over a thousand miles without human intervention and 140,000 miles with occasional intervention. Like previous experiments, the Google vehicles rely on LIDAR, cameras, and other equipment to find their way.

Google’s vehicles have the added advantage of using Google Maps, which records one-way streets and (in some areas) even the speed limit.

Though the project has not been without its hiccups, Google’s vehicles have reached a high level of development. So much so, that in a New York Times article, the autonomous cars were described as easily outpacing the existing driving laws in most states. For its part, Google has been working that angle, too. The company’s lobbying efforts have already led to the passage of laws allowing driverless cars in Nevada, which went into effect March 1st of this year. According to the LA Times, California is moving on a similar path, with the state legislature requiring this past May that standards be established in the state to eventually allow driverless vehicles.

Two states is hardly mass acceptance, but consider what a world filled with driverless cars would mean. Traffic accidents would likely drop dramatically, as driverless vehicles comply to the letter of the law and are never drunk or distracted. With a drop in car accidents, the price of vehicle insurance would likely drop as well.

Huge numbers of driverless cars might also have a positive effect on the environment. Since a computerized vehicle could travel much, much closer to other vehicles, even at high speeds, they could take advantage of drafting. As seen on Mythbusters, this is where a smaller vehicle following a larger one can receive a miles-per-gallon boost. While extremely dangerous for manned vehicles, a driverless car could accomplish the task with ease.

Automated cars would also open the door to large-scale transit management. Instead of relying on puny humans to decide their routes, vehicles could communicate with each other and with centralized traffic control centers orchestrating traffic on a large scale. Imagine enormous packs of individual vehicles, swiftly avoiding snarls and backups and moving people quickly, and efficiently, to their desitinations.

More importantly, driverless cars could completely obliterate the concept of car ownership as we know it today. According to Wikipedia, cars spend 96% of their time sitting idle. That’s 96% of the time where car owners don’t actually need their cars. Driverless car systems could allow drivers to simply order a car when they want it, and drive off when they’re through.

“What if I could take out my phone and say, ‘Zipcar, come here,’ ” he asked an industry conference last year, “and a moment later the Zipcar came around the corner?”

Of course, handing over the wheel is hard to do — especially for something like a car. Keeping drivers behind the wheel makes accountability so much easier, and removes any fear of a Skynet-style robot takeover or Big Brother controlling our cars.

However, some of this technology from a utopian vision of driverless car ownership is already available — and not just on experimental Google vehicles. Cruise control has been available for decades. Though older versions just maintained a consistent speed, more modern versions will even slow down if other cars get too close and warn the driver if he or she drifts out of the lane — almost (if, temporarily) removing the driver from the equation

Some cars even boast automatic parallel parking, using location sensors and cameras. Others have more humble, but no less important, pieces of automation, like automatic traction control that can sense when the wheels are losing traction or the car is taking a deep turn. Even anti-lock breaks have automated a once essential piece of driver education — when was the last time you had to pump your breaks to keep them from locking?

In another example, the Google Maps Android app provides traffic information and can dynamically change a route to avoid problem areas. Amazingly, much of the information for this app was gathered anonymously from users as they plied the streets. Though it’s hardly an all-seeing traffic control system, it’s a hint of what large-scale traffic information infrastructure might look like.

Currently, there seems to be three main obstacles standing in the way of driverless vehicles. First, legislation needs to be changed to reflect traffic scenarios where humans are not always present or at fault. As seen in Nevada and California, this is changing, but it still has a long way to go.

Second, while the technology involved has been proven time and time again, it can always get better and cheaper. Though the economic feasibility of Google’s automated fleet aren’t clear — recently, the company admitted that the vehicle modifications cost about $150,000, just $70,000 for the LIDAR alone. If, however, the price of the technology were to fall and be implemented by the vehicle’s manufacturer, instead of as aftermarket upgrades, the per-car price would surely drop as it would be spread across an entire fleet of vehicles.

Third, and most importantly, is human acceptance. Giving up control and responsibility is scary. If it wasn’t, surrendering one’s driver’s license late in life would not be the emotional ordeal that it is. It will surely take people quite a while to get used to the idea that their car can drive better than they can.

Or perhaps, we will see a hybridized future where cars have highly advanced cruise control systems that make them effectively autonomous. However, they can be quickly and easily overridden by the driver, who will probably continue to sit in the driver’s seat, hands at the ready for something to go wrong.

Perhaps simultaneously, automated car-shares like ZipCar will likely also make headway — perhaps in purpose-designed vehicles that don’t even have driver’s seats or what we would recognize as a car interior. Capable of traveling in large, efficient groups, these vehicles could provide a middle ground between traditional car ownership and mass transit. They could even bring the benefits of mass transit to areas that currently lack the funds or the initiative to build their own systems.

Of course, that’s all in the future. For now, we’ll just have to watch as high-end cars parallel park themselves, and slow-clap approvingly.

Though driverless cars are a long way off, the Lincoln MKS offers advanced options like automated parallel parking, and cruise control with collision warning that slows you down as the traffic changes in front of you. Its lane keeping system even keeps a vigilant eye on the road, alerting you if you drift out of your lane. With built-in navigation and SiriusXM traffic link, the MKS will get you where you want to go, avoiding the worst of road.

]]>http://www.themarysue.com/self-driving-cars/feed/12Sebastian Thrun, Mastermind of Stanford’s Free AI Course, Forms Free Education Websitehttp://www.themarysue.com/sebastian-thrun-udacity/
http://www.themarysue.com/sebastian-thrun-udacity/#commentsMon, 23 Jan 2012 22:25:53 +0000http://www.geekosystem.com/?p=87070Researcher and professor Sebastian Thrun turned a lot of heads when he headed a bold experiment in online teaching at Stanford University by offering an artificial intelligence course for free. Of the 160,000 enrollees, 23,000 graduated the course with a Stanford University certificate and a head full of computer science knowledge. The experience of teaching a course on such a massive scale apparently left its mark on Thrun as well, who announced today at the Digital Life Design conference that he was leaving Stanford and was heading up a new free education project called Udacity.]]>Researcher and professor Sebastian Thrun turned a lot of heads when he headed a bold experiment in online teaching at Stanford University by offering an artificial intelligence course for free. Of the 160,000 enrollees, 23,000 graduated the course with a Stanford University certificate and a head full of computer science knowledge. The experience of teaching a course on such a massive scale apparently left its mark on Thrun as well, who announced today at the Digital Life Design conference that he was leaving Stanford and was heading up a new free education project called Udacity.

Like the Stanford course, Udacity will be focused on computer science courses taught at the university level and free of charge. There are currently two courses available. The first, CS 101: Building a Search Engine, will require no previous knowledge of programming and aims to teach the fundamentals of computer science in seven weeks. It will be taught by Thrun and University of Virginia professor Dave Evans. The second course is a follow up to the Stanford AI course called CS 373: Programming a Robotic Car, and will certainly touch on Thrun’s passion of driverless vehicles.

The motivation to take free education to a new level was for Thrun a matter of true urgency. I Programmer quotes Thrun as having said:

Now that I saw the true power of education, there is no turning back. It’s like a drug. I won’t be able to teach 200 students again, in a conventional classroom setting.

And not just more people, but people of all walks of life and from all over the world. Moreover, Thrun believes that his online teaching techniques surpass interaction in a physical classroom. He points out that during the original Stanford course, his 200 person class dwindled to 30 people. Thrun said that this was a testament to the intimacy and success of online teaching, though it’s just as likely they preferred being able to sleep in.

Thrun was eloquent on the subject of how he realized that he had been running “weeder” classes, designed to be tough and make students fail and make himself, the professor, look good. Going forwards, he said, he wanted to learn from Khan Academy and build courses designed to make as many students as possible succeed — by revisiting classes and tests as many times as necessary until they really master the material.

While Udacity certainly looks like a positive step forward for free online education, and for increasing the computer science knowledge base — something that our society badly needs — it lacks one thing that the Stanford course had: Name recognition. No doubt many people signed up for the Stanford class simply for the love of learning, but the promise of a certificate from a well known university was likely a major incentive as well.

Even though Thrun talks about reaching 500,000 students with his next course, he’s also espousing a fairly utopian view of education where the learners want to learn and the teachers want to teach. Conventional wisdom would have us believe that only small groups of passionate individuals could make that happen. Thrun has, however, already done the unthinkable with his Stanford course, and perhaps he will again.

]]>http://www.themarysue.com/sebastian-thrun-udacity/feed/10Stanford University is Offering Computer Science Courses Online, Free to Anyonehttp://www.themarysue.com/free-stanford-courses/
http://www.themarysue.com/free-stanford-courses/#commentsMon, 22 Aug 2011 15:55:03 +0000http://www.geekosystem.com/?p=71038Stanford University is now expanding computer science courses available online, for free, for any students who wish to join. It all began a few weeks ago with an introductory course on artificial intelligence (AI) taught by the award-winning professors Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig. Now, two new courses are available; the first, an Introduction to Databases taught by Professor Jennifer Widom; the second, Machine Learning with Professor Andrew Ng. Over 100,000 students have signed up since the courses were announced.
Prospective students need only know one programming language well enough to complete the assignments. The most important requirement is that students commit the time for the class: A few hours of homework and two rounds of lectures running two and a half hours each per week. Professors will aggregate online student questions and answer the top rated ones, and students will receive feedback on all of their work. Additionally, a study group is being run on Reddit for the AI course. ]]>Stanford University is now expanding computer science courses available online, for free, for any students who wish to join. It all began a few weeks ago with an introductory course on artificial intelligence (AI) taught by the award-winning professors Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig. Now, two new courses are available; the first, an Introduction to Databases taught by Professor Jennifer Widom; the second, Machine Learning with Professor Andrew Ng. Over 100,000 students have signed up since the courses were announced.

Prospective students need only know one programming language well enough to complete the assignments. The most important requirement is that students commit the time for the class: A few hours of homework and two rounds of lectures running two and a half hours each per week. Professors will aggregate online student questions and answer the top rated ones, and students will receive feedback on all of their work. Additionally, a study group is being run on Reddit for the AI course.

For those less keen on the rigors of a full course, Stanford also offers free lectures through their Engineering Everywhere site. Additionally, a series of 10-minute lectures on machine learning by Professor Andrew Ng have been available on YouTube for over three years.

The interesting thing about this program is not that it’s higher education via the Internet — online correspondence courses have already blazed that trail — but that this program seems to exist solely for education’s sake. Students that complete the course will receive a “statement of achievement,” but no grades and no credit. In his introductory message, Professor Thrun recalls that when he was a student it was nearly impossible to find an AI course. Since then, the computing world has grown far more complex, demanding greater understanding from more people than ever before. Perhaps Thrun and his colleagues aim to address that by letting the world into their classroom.

The program will run from October 10 to December 16, so enroll quickly!

]]>http://www.themarysue.com/free-stanford-courses/feed/6Video from Inside a Google Self-Driving Carhttp://www.themarysue.com/google-self-driving-car-video/
http://www.themarysue.com/google-self-driving-car-video/#commentsFri, 04 Mar 2011 14:34:30 +0000http://www.geekosystem.com/?p=53768
At this week's TED 2011 conference, Google has been inviting attendees to take a spin inside its self-driving cars. Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan managed to take a short video of his ride.
Yesterday at TED, Sebastian Thrun, the Google engineer heading up the project, shared his personal motivation in researching self-driving cars: When he was 18, his best friend died in a car accident, and since then he "has dedicated himself to saving a million lives a year by eradicating driver error."
(via Search Engine Land)]]>

At this week’s TED 2011 conference, Google has been inviting attendees to take a spin inside its self-driving cars. Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan managed to take a short video of his ride.

Yesterday at TED, Sebastian Thrun, the Google engineer heading up the project, shared his personal motivation in researching self-driving cars: When he was 18, his best friend died in a car accident, and since then he “has dedicated himself to saving a million lives a year by eradicating driver error.”